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Catalog Data

Creator:
Coburn, Alvin Langdon, 1882-1966  Search this
Freer, Charles Lang, 1856-1919  Search this
Names:
Freer Gallery of Art  Search this
Freer, Charles Lang, 1856-1919  Search this
Collection Creator:
Freer, Charles Lang, 1856-1919  Search this
Extent:
1 Item (linear foot)
Type:
Archival materials
Photographs
Date:
1909
Scope and Contents:
Photographs of Charles Lang Freer taken by Alvin Langdon Coburn, February 1909. They depict Freer in a variety of poses, such as leaning against a desk, examining some artwork, or simply facing the camera. One print was sent to the Freer Gallery in 1955 by a relative of Freer's business partner Frank Hecker. Two autochromes and 14 platinum prints.
Arrangement:
Organized by country.
Biographical / Historical:
Alvin Langdon Coburn (1882-1966) was born in Boston, Massachusetts to a middle class British family. Coburn began exploring photography after receiving a camera for his eighth birthday. However, it was not until a few years later that he began exploring photography seriously. Coburn opened his first studio in New York City in 1902 to exhibit his prints, and became part of a crowd that wanted to establish photography as art. He moved to London in 1904 to take portraits of celebrities, including an iconic one of George Bernard Shaw posed nude as Auguste Rodin's "The Thinker." Coburn not only shot portraits, but also unique street scenes of New York City. He was quite interested in creating the fractured affects of cubism and futurism through use of photography, as demonstrated in his "vortographs." He experimented with perspective and abstract patterns. Later in his life, Coburn became disinterested in photography as his interest in mysticism grew. He resumed photography in the 1950s before his death in 1966.
Local Numbers:
FSA A.01 12.01.2
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Topic:
Art, Asian -- Collectors and collecting  Search this
Art, American -- Collectors and collecting  Search this
Art -- Collectors and collecting  Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Collection Citation:
Charles Lang Freer Papers. FSA A.01. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of the estate of Charles Lang Freer.
Identifier:
FSA.A.01, File FSA A.01 12.01.2
See more items in:
Charles Lang Freer Papers
Charles Lang Freer Papers / Series 12: Photographs / 12.1: Portraits of Freer
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc36e7ea4f0-2cf2-4aec-946a-5e5ebc97cd63
EDAN-URL:
ead_component:sova-fsa-a-01-ref3165